High Tech, Low Life

This documentary follows two bloggers on their journalistic road trips across China. They denounce social abuses using mobile phones, cameras and laptops, with the authorities constantly breathing down their neck.

Young Chinese vegetable-seller Zola decides to start a second life as an underground reporter. With no links to the established media, he circumvents the restrictions that the Chinese government imposes on the press, lending a voice to people whose story generally goes unnoticed. His 57-year-old predecessor and colleague ‘Tiger Temple’ is considered to be China’s first real citizen reporter. On his bicycle he roams through the Chinese provinces to report on village dwellers’ struggle against oppression and poverty.

On several occasions, both reporters are thwarted by the authorities, and have to reconcile a growing sense of individualism, social responsibility and personal sacrifice. From the perspective of two different generations, the film sheds an alternative light on news gathering in 21^th century China.